Applicants for a gun license will be subject to social media checks as the Home Office has ordered every police force in England and Wales to review all existing applications to hold a firearm.
The move marks a substantial tightening of existing firearm controls, which will see applicants’ social media accounts vetted before they are granted a licence.
It comes in the wake of the mass shooting in Plymouth, when 22 year old Jake Davison shot dead five people. His social media accounts revealed he was radicalised by the misogynist “incel” internet subculture.
The Home Office also recommended that police should consider whether they need to revisit existing gun licences.
It comes as the department prepares to publish statutory guidance on firearm licensing, which will aim to ensure “greater consistency and higher standards” of decision-making for applications.
A Home Office source said: “Incidents such as Thursday’s horrific events in Plymouth are thankfully rare, but their impact is profound, not only on those directly affected but on the public as a whole.
“We are bringing forward new guidance to improve how people applying for a firearms licence are assessed in future, including social media checks. But today, as a matter of urgency, we are asking the police to review their practices and whether any existing licences need to be looked at again. This will help reassure people that all necessary checks have been made to keep them safe.”
On Sunday, the family of Plymouth shooting victim Stephen Washington said their world “has been turned upside down in the blink of an eye” as they paid tribute to him.
The 59-year-old, one of five people killed by Davison on Thursday night, was a “devoted” family man and a “loving husband, father, grandfather and best friend”, they said in a statement.
Mr Washington was the fourth victim during Davison’s shooting spree, gunned down in front of horrified onlookers in a park in the Keyham area of the city.
His widow Sheila described him as her “soulmate”, saying: “Fly high, you’ve earnt your angel wings.”
Davison shot his 51-year-old mother, also known as Maxine Chapman, at a house in Biddick Drive before he went into the street and shot dead Sophie, aged three, and her father, Lee Martyn, 43.
He killed Mr Washington, 59, in a nearby park before shooting Kate Shepherd, 66, who later died at Derriford Hospital.Questions are continuing to mount over how gunman Davison, 22, obtained a firearms licence and carried out his spree before turning the gun on himself.
Local MP Luke Pollard questioned the country’s current gun legislation, and demanded to know how Davison’s licence was restored to him by the police.
The MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport said it was necessary to examine the system behind the allocation of gun licences to avoid a similar tragedy taking place elsewhere in the UK.
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